Pickleball - In how many sports can you beat your kids or grand kids?


(Steve Evans) #1

Since this past April I’ve lost 30 pounds doing Keto and Pickleball. Have you even heard of Pickleball? If not, it’s one of the fastest growing sports so I’m going to introduce it along with some of its benefits specifically for those of us on a weight loss journey using a Keto lifestyle.
It was apparently introduced just 60 or so years ago. Here are some U.S. stats:

  • There were 2.8 million Pickleball players in 2017
  • 1,700 USAPA Ambassadors (volunteers who promote the sport in their local area)
  • 300 courts are created per month
  • 2018 US Open Pickleball Championships will have over $40,000 in prize money.

I describe it as the perfect fusion of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. It’s played on a small court similar to a tennis court but with an important difference I’ll describe later. You can fit 3 pickleball courts on a standard basketball court allowing reuse of existing courts so it can be played almost anywhere with a portable net available for around $100USD and paddles starting at about $10USD. But more importantly the game seems to be designed to favor strategy, accuracy, and finesse over pure athleticism. This was particularly interesting to me as I was (and still am) overweight which impacts by knees and ankles, and I seemed to constantly be injuring my elbow and wrist while playing tennis. There are 4 key ways the game does this:

  1. Serves in Pickleball are underhand, minimizing attempts to win points on the serve by serving hard (and hurting one’s arm trying to do so). Also, the return must be allowed to bounce thus making the serve and return just a way to get the ball into play and not something most players use to win points.
  2. The game is also played with a plastic ball with holes in it, similar to a whiffle ball but smaller and heavier. Those holes slow the ball down so that someone can hit the ball as hard as they want from the back line and it is completely returnable by someone at the other end of the court. This deemphasizes the importance of hitting the ball really hard, again, saving my elbow and shoulder.
  3. The game is almost always played as doubles which means you have a much smaller area to cover than in tennis. No need to sprint. I’ve seen videos of 5.0 players who saunter up to the kitchen line due to health issues and still dominate the game.
  4. Which brings me to the most distinctive aspect of the game: The non-volley zone or kitchen as it’s known, marked by a line 7-feel on either side of the net. In Pickleball, you are not allowed to hit the ball out of the air (i.e. a volley) while inside or touching that line (or if your momentum from a volley would take you into the zone). That keeps people from standing at the net ready to slam a ball. What it also does is creates a completely unique aspect to the game, called “dinking”. Dinking occurs when lightly returning the ball into the opposing team’s kitchen such that they can’t volley it out of the air and instead need to step into the kitchen in order to hit the shot after it has bounced. If the shot into the kitchen was low and close to the net, hitting the ball hard would likely put it up high and right in the area to be volleyed out of the air for a winning shot. So instead, their best shot is to dink it back just over the net into the kitchen. Thus dinking begins. Dinking continues with the light shots back and forth over the net into the kitchen until someone makes a mistake, such as hitting it into the net, or hitting it too high such that the other team can hit a winning volley without stepping into the kitchen. As mentioned before, this favors accuracy, finesse, and strategy.

I saw an interview of a 70-year-old man who won a tournament in Florida and when asked how he won again much younger players, he replied, “This is game is played with your mind!” That appealed to me so I gave it a go. I’ve never seen another game where men and women, 13-80, can come together and play competitively, get good exercise, and have a good time. I’m 49. and I play against everyone from 13 year-old kids, to 70/80 year-old men & women, winning sometimes and losing others, but always having a great time!

For those of you who are playing pickleball, are you finding it as addictive yet as helpful as I am? If you haven’t tried it, I encourage you google it to find your local pickleball ambassador and go give it a try. I can’t recommend it highly enough and it may be an enjoyable addition to your Keto lifestyle! I’d love to hear if you find it as helpful as I have.


(Doug) #2

Steve, heck of a post there, and Pickleball sounds fun indeed. :slightly_smiling_face:

(In how many sports can you beat your kids or grand kids? - All that came to mind was that I can damn sure drink them all under the table. :smile:)